



/ c 



/■ 




•r-'-:i 



'■Jfff 



thf 



The Doric Pillar of Michigan, 



A MEMORIAL ADDRESS, 

COMMEMORATIVE OF 



The Hon. Zachariah Chandler, 

UNITED STATES SENATOR, 



DELIVERED IN THE 



Fort Street Presbyterian Church, 



DETROIT, MICHIGAN, 



THURSDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 27, 1879. 



BY 



ARTHUR T, PIERSON, 




DETROIT 



O. S. UULLEY, BORNMAN k CO., PRINTERS, 12, 14, 16 LARNED ST. EAST. 

1879. 



dd^^S 



"Tliei-e were giants in the eai'tli in those days" is 
the sim^)le reec)r(l of the age before the flood. 

There has Ijeeu ut) age without its giants; not, per- 
haps, in tlie narrow sense of great physical statui-e, but 
in the liroader sense of mental might, capacity to com- 
mand and control. Such men are l)ut few, in the 
most favored times, and it takes but few to give 
shape to human histoiy and destiny. Their words 
shake the world ; their deeds move and mould 
humanity; and, as Carlyle has suggested, history is 
but their lengthened shadows, the indefinite prolong- 
ing of their influence even after they are dead. 

One of these giants has -recently fallen, at the 
commanding signal of one, who is far greater than any 
of the sons of men, and, at whose touch, kings drop 
theii- sceptre ami, Hke the meanest of their slaves, 
crumble to dust. 

This giant fell among us. A\'e had seen him as he 
gre\v to his great stature and rose to his throne of 
power. He moved in our streets, he spoke in our 
halls; in our city of the living, was his eai'thly home, 



and in our city of tlie dead, is his place of rest. He 
went from us to the nation's capital, to represent our 
State in the Senate of the Repul)lic ; he belonged to 
Michigan, and Michigan gave him to the Union ; but 
he never forgot the home of his manhood. Here his 
dearest interests chastered, and his deepest affections 
gathered ; and here his most loving memorial will be 
reared. As he belonged peculiarly to this congrega- 
tion, surely it is our privilege to weave the fii'st wreath 
to gai'land his memory. 

The annual Day of Thanksgiving is peculiarly a 
national day, since it is the only one in the year, when 
the whole nation is called upon by its chief magistrate 
to give thanks as a united people. By common con- 
sent, it is admitted proper that, on that day, special 
mention Ije made of matters that affect oui' civil and 
political well-being. There is therefore an eminent 
fitness in a formal commemoration, upon this day, of 
the life and labors of our departed Senator and states- 
man. 

With diffidence I attempt the task that falls to me. 
The time is too short to admit even a brief sketch of a 
life so long in deeds, so eventful in all that makes 
material for biography; a life full, not only of inci- 
dents, but of crises ; moreover I am neither a senator 
nor a statesman, and feel incompetent to review a 
career which only the keen eye of one versed in aft'airs 



of state can apprehend or apjireciate in its full signifi- 
cance; but, if you will indulge me, I will, without 
conscious partiality or pai'tisauship, calmly give utter- 
ance to the unspoken verdict of the common people, 
as to our depai'ted fellow-citizen; and tiy to hint at 
least a few of the lessons of a life that suggests some 
of the secrets of success. 

History is the most profitable of all studies, and 
biography is the key of history. In the lives of men, 
philosophy teaches us by examples. In tlie analysis 
of character, we detect the essential elements of success 
and discern the causes of failure. Virtue and vice 
impress us most in conci'ete fonns; and hence even 
the best of all books enshi'ines, as its priceless jewel, 
the stoiy of the only perfect life. 

To draw even the profile of Mr. Chandler's public 
career the propei- limits of this address do not allow. 
There is material, in the twenty yeai's of his senatorial 
life, which could be spread through volumes. His 
advocacy of the great northwest, whose champion he 
was ; his master-influence, first as a member, and then 
as the chairman of the committee of commerce ; his 
bold, keen dissection of the Hai-per's Ferry panic ; his 
sagacious organization of the presidential contests ; his 
plain declarations of loyalty to the Union as some- 
thing; which must be maintained at cost both of treas- 
ure and of blood ; his large practical faculty for admin- 



V . 



4-1- 



istration, made so conspicuous during stormy times; 
his efficiency as a member of tlie standing committee 
on the conduct of the Avar ; his ex^sosure of those who 
were I'esponsible for its failures, and his defence of 
those who promoted its successes ; his marked influence 
in changing not only the channel of public sentiment, 
but the current of events ; his watchful guaixlianship 
of popular interests, political and financial ; his intelli- 
gence and activity in senatorial debates ; his attentive 
and persistent study of the problem of reconstruction ; 
and his fearless I'esistance to all southern aggression 
and intimidation, are among the salient points of that 
long and eventful public service, whose scope is too 
wide to allow at this hour even a hasty survey. 

But, happily it is quite needless that in such a 
presence, I should trace in detail the events of his life : 
to us he was no stranger; and the mark he has made 
upon our memory and our history is too deep not to 
last. His fo(^t prints are not left upon treacherous 
and shifting quicksands; and no wave of oblivion is 
likely soon to wash them away. 

Zachariah Chandler had nearly completed his sixty- 
sixth year ; forty-six years he had been a resident of 
the City of the Straits. New Hampshire was the 
State of his nativity: Michigan was, in an emphatic 
sense, the State of his adoption. In our city his first 
success was won in mercantile pursuits, where also 



was the first field for the exhibition of his energy, 
ability and integrity. Here, as this century passed its 
meridian hoiir, he passed the great turning-point in 
his career; and his large capacities and energies were 
diverted into a political channel. First, mayor of the 
city, then nominated for governor; when, more than 
twenty years ago, a successor was sought for Lewis 
Cass, in the Senate, this already marked man became 
the first representative of the Republican party of this 
State, in that august body at Washington. There, for 
a period of eighteen years, he sat among the mightiest 
men of the nation, steadily moving toward the 
acknowledged leadership of his party, and the inevi- 
ta])le command of public affairs. After three tei'ms 
in the Senate, his seat was occupied for a short time 
by another ; l)ut, upon the resignation of Mr. 
Christiancy, he was, with no little enthusiasm, re- 
elected, and was in the midst of a fourth term, when 
suddenly he was no more numbered among the living. 
It may be doubted whether, at this time, any one 
man, from Maine to Mexico, swayed the popular mind 
and will with a more potent sceptre than did he ; and 
many confidently believe and aflirin that, had Death 
spared him, he would have been lifted by the omnipo- 
tent voice and vote of the people, to the Presidency 
of the Republic. 

Mr. Chandler took his seat in the Senate in those 



days of strife wlieii tlie stoi'iii was gathering, which, 
on the memorable 27th of April, 1861, l>nrst iipon oui' 
heads, in the first gun fired at Fort Sumpter. He 
entered the Senate chamber, to take the oath of ofiice, 
in company with some wliose names are now eithei' 
famous or infamous, for all time. On the one hand, 
there was Jetferson Davis; on the other Hannibal 
Hamlin, Charles Sumner, Benjamin F. Wade and 
Simon Cameron. 

Those were days when history is made fast. 
Every day thi-obbed mth big issues. Kansas was a 
battle ground of freedom ; and the awful struggle 
between State Sovereignty and National Unity was 
gathering, like a volcano, for its tenible outbreak. 
The Republican Senator from Michigan took in, at a 
glance, the situation of affairs. Devoted as he was to 
the State, whose able advocate and zealous friend he 
was; earnest and persistent as he was, in promoting 
the commercial and industrial iutei'ests of the Lake 
region ; he was yet too much a patriot to forget the 
Avhole country; and, as the great conflict, which Mr. 
Seward named "irrepressible," moved steadily ou 
towards its crisis, he ai'med himself for the encounter 
and planted his feet upon the rock of unalterable 
allegiance to the Union; and from that position he 
never swerved. 

Mr. Chandler was a zealous party -man ; in the eyes 



of some, he was a partisan, in the strenuous advocacy 
of some measures; but I believe, that when History 
frames her ultimate, impartial vei'dict, she will accord 
to him a candid, conscientious adherence to what he 
believed to be a fundamental principle, absolutely 
essential to our national life. He saw the South, 
breathing hot hate towai'd the North, planning and 
threatening to rend the Union assunder. To him it 
was not a question simply of liberty and slavery, of 
sectional prejudice, of political animosity ; but a mat- 
ter of life or of death. He saw the scimitar of seces- 
sion, raised in the ffio-antic hand of Wai- — but what was 
it that it was proposed to cleave in twain at one blow ! 
A living, vital form! the body of a nation, with its 
one grand frame-woi'k, its common bi-aiu and heart, its 
network of aiteries and veins, and nerves. It was not 
dissection as of a corpse — it was vivisection as of a 
corpus — that sharp blade, if it fell, would cut through 
a living form, and leave two quivering, bleeding parts, 
instead. Divide the nation? Why the same mount- 
ain ranges run down our eastern and western shores ; 
the same great rivers, which are the arteries of our 
commerce, flow through both sections. Our rejjublic 
is a unit Ijy the decree of natui'e, that marked oui' 
nation's area and arena hj the lines of territorial 
unity, a unit hj the decree of histoiy that records one 
series of common experiences; and, aside from the 



10 



decree of nature and of history, it is one by the decree 
of necessity, foi' we could not sui'vive the separation. 
Those were the decisive days, and they showed whose 
heart was yearning toward the child ; and God said, as 
He saw a unanimous North, pleading with Hiiu to 
arrest the falling sword and spare the living body of 
a nation's life — "give her the child for she is the 
mother thereof ! " 

Mr. Chandler has been charged with violent and 
even vindictive feeling toward what he deemed dis- 
loyalty and ti'eason. 

You have heard the story of the Russians, chased 
by a hungry pack of wolves, driving at the height of 
speed over the cinsp snow, finding the beasts of pi'ey 
gaining fast upon them ; and tlirowing out one living 
child after another, to appease the maw of wolfish 
hunger, while the rest of the family liuri'ied on toward 
safety. 

There are sagacious statesmen that have declared, 
for a quarter of a century, that state-rights represents 
the 23ack of wolves and the sovereignty of the Union, 
the imperilled household. For scores of years, the 
encroachments of the South became more and more 
imperious and alarming. 

Concession after concession was made, offering 
after offering fiung to the sacrifice, but only to be fol- 
lowed by a hungrier clamor and demand for more: 

. ^ 



11 



and, at last, even men of peace said, "we must stop 
right here and fight these wolves;" and, when it 
becomes a question of life and death, men l^econie 
despei'ate. 

I have never supposed myself to l)e a strong parti- 
san. As a man, a citizen, and a christian, I have 
sought to find the true political faith, and, finding it, 
to hold it, firmly and fearlessly. The question of the 
unity of our nation and the sovereignty of the national 
government has ever seemed to me to be of supreme 
moment, transcending all mere political or party issues ; 
and, as a patriot, I cannot be indifferent to it. 

When the long struggle between state-i'ights and 
national sovereignty grew hot and bi'oke out into civil 
war, it was a matter of tremendous consequence that 
the Union be preserved. History stood pointing, with 
solemn finger, to the fate of the Republics of Greece 
and Switzerland, reminding us that confederation 
alone will not suffice to keep a nation alive. Mexico, 
at our borders, was a warning against dismemberment 
oi- the loss of the supremacy of a repiiblican unity. 
And men of all parties forgot party issues in patriotic 
devotion. It may lie a question whether state sover- 
eignty, however fatal to national life, deserved the 
hideous name of treason, before the Avar. But, after 
the matter had l)een referred to the arbitrament of 
the sword, and had been settled at such cost of blood 



12 



and treasure, it can never henceforth be anything but 
treason, again to raise that issue. Hence, even men 
that were temperate in their opposition to southern 
aggressions before the war, now are impatient. They 
set their teeth with the resohition of despair, and say, 
"we make no further effort to escape this issue, and 
we throw out no more offerings of concession. We 
shall fight these wolves ; and either state-rights or 
national sovereignty shall die." 

This was Mr. Chandler's position : if it was a mis- 
taken one, it is the unspoken verdict of millions of 
the l)est men of all ])arties in tlie Avhole coimtry: and 
every new concession to this great national heresy is 
only making new converts to the necessity of a firm 
and fearless resistance. 

Some one has suggested that the old division of 
the church into militant and triumphant is no longer 
sufficient; we must add another, namely, the church 
termigant. In our countiy both sections were mili- 
tant, and one was tiiumphant; the other has been 
very termigant ever since. General Gi-aut, at his 
reception in Chicago, declared that the war for the 
Union had put the Republic on a new footing abroad. 
A quarter of a century ago, liy j)olitical leaders across 
the sea, "it was believed we had no nation. It was 
merely a confederation of states, tied together by a 
rope of sand, and would give way upon the slightest 



13 



friction. Tliey have found it was a grand mistake. 
Tliey know we have now a nation, that we are a 
nation of strong and intelligent and brave people, 
capable of judging and knowing our rights, and deter- 
mined on all occasions to maintain them against either 
domestic or foreign foes; and that is the reception 
you, as a nation, have received through me while I 
was abroad." 

On the same day we have a significant voice from 
the south. General Toombs, in response to a sugges- 
tion that governors of various states and prominent 
southern men shoul<l unite in congratulations to the 
ex-president on his return, telegraphs in these words: 
" I decline to answer except to say, I present my per- 
sonal congratulations to General Grant on his safe 
return to his country. He fought for his countiy 
honorably and won. I fought for mine and lost. I am 
ready to try it over ! Death to the Union ! " 

Here we have simply two representative utter- 
ances ; one is the voice of a solid North ; the other 
is w-e fear the voice of a South, that is nuich more 
" solid" than \ve could \vish. It is no marvel if, after 
a war of so many years, that cost so many lives and so 
much money, and left us to drag through ten years of 
a financial slough, loyal men are impatient and even 
ano-ry, when they discover that the question is still an 
unsettled one, and that we have not even concpiered a 



14 



peace ! Even the inteipi'etation now attached to this 
seditious utterance by General Toombs himself, that 
" the vesiilt of the war was death to the Union, and 
that the present government is a consolidated one, not 
a confederacy," does not essentially relieve the matter. 
Mr. Chandler could not brook what he i-egarded 
as sentiments rendered dotibly treasonable l)y the fact 
tliat a long, bittei' l)ut successful war had ] turned upon 
them with a hot ii'ou the l)rand of treason. He fought 
those sentiments, and it was as under a black flag that 
announced " no (piarter." But this does not prove 
malicious or viiidictiA^e feeling toward misguided men, 
wlio hold sucli views. There is a difference between 
fighting a princi|)le and fighting a person. In fact the 
only way to pre\'ent fighting men is often a vigorous 
and timely opposition to their measures. And if we 
wisli to avoid another war and, that, a war of extermi- 
nation, the ballot nuist obviate the necessity for tlie 
])u]let : we must stand together, and by OTir voice and 
vote, l)y tongue and pen, by our laws and our acts, in 
the use of every keen weapon, exterminate the heresy 
of state-rights. We need not do this in hate toward 
the South: a ti'iie love even for the kSouth demands it, 
for to tlieni as to us it is a deadly foe to all true 
prosperity, and national existence. How can a man 
who candidly h)oks upon the present attitude of the 
South as both suicidal and nationalh" desti'uctive, be 



15 



calm and cool? The philippics of Demosthenes were 
bitter, l)ut they were the mighty beatings of a heart 
that pnlsed with the })atriotism that cunld not see 
lil)erty tlirottled without sounding a h)ud and indig- 
nant alarm. The North owes a big debt to every man 
who at this crisis will not siiffer an imperilled Re- 
pul)lir to sleep) ! 

M)'. Cliaudlei' was not a college-graduate. His 
early ti'aining was got in the New England common 
school and academy. Yet he was in a true sense an 
educated man : foi' education is 'not a dead mass of 
accumulations,' but self-develo])ment, '])owe]' to work 
with the brain;' to use the hand in cunning and mri- 
ous industries, to use the tongue in attractive and 
effective speech, to use tlie i)en in wise, witty or 
weighty paragraphs. Somehow he had learned to 
hold, with a master hand, the I'eins of his own mind, 
and make his imagination and reason and memory and 
powers of speech o])ey his behests. Tluit is no com- 
mon acquirement: it is something beyond all mei'e 
acquirement ; it is the infallible sign and seal of cul- 
ture. His addresses, even on critical occasif)ns, were 
unwritten, and, in some cases, could not have been 
elal)orated, even in the mind ; yet in vigor of thought, 
logical continuity and consistency, accuracy of diction, 
and even I'hetorical grace, few pulilic speakers e([ual 
them. 



16 



Tlie power to command tlie popiilar ear is a rare 
powei', wlietlier it be a gift of nature or a grace of cul- 
ture. Witli Mr. Chandler it was held and wielded as 
a native sceptre. He had the secret of rhetorical adapt- 
ation : he could at once go down to the level of the 
people and yet lift them to his level. They under- 
stood what he said, and knew what he meant. He 
threw himself into their modes of thought and habits 
of speech: he culled his illustrations mainly from 
common life. If he sacrificed anything, it was rhetor- 
ical elegance, never force ; his one aim was to compel 
conviction. 

The simplicity of his diction was a prime element 
and secret of his power. He did not speak as one 
who had to say something, but as one who had some- 
thing to say, and whose whole aim was to say it well ; 
with clearness, plainness, force and effect. If he could 
not have both weight and lustre, he would have 
weight. 

Walter Scott has exposed the absurdity of 'writ- 
ing do\\Ti ' to children, and shown that it is really writ- 
ing up, to make oneself so simj)le as to be plain even 
to the child-mind. Simplicity is the highest art. To 
have thought faintly gloom and glimmer through 
obscure language, like stars through a haze or mist, 
may serve to impress the ignorant with a supposed 
profundity in the speaker; but it is no more a sign of 



17 



sucli profundity tlian muddy water signifies deptli in 
a stream ; it may suggest deptli because you can see no 
l)()ttom, but it means shallowness ! It is a lesson that 
all of us may well learn from the life of our departed 
senator, that the first element of good speaking is 
tliought ; and the second a form of words fitting the 
thought, which, like true dress, shall not call atten- 
tion to itself but to the idea or conception which it 
clothes. Any man who is long to hold the ear of the 
people miist give them facts and thoughts Avorth 
knowing and thinking of, in words which it will not 
take a walking dictionary or living encyclopedia to 
interpret, or a philosopher to untangle from the skein 
of their confusion. 

Mr. Chandler was such a man, a man for the peo- 
ple. Free from all stately airs and stilted dignities, 
he took hold of every political and national question 
with ungloved hands. He understood and used the 
language of home life, which is the 'universal dialect' 
of power. His speeches were packed with vigor- 
ous Saxon. He thought more of the short swoi'd, 
with its sharp edge and keen point and close 
thrust, than of the scholar's labored latinity, with its 
lonijer lilade, even thouo-h it mio-ht also have a dia- 
mond-decked hilt : and in this, as in not a few other 
conspicuous traits, he was master of the best secrets 
that ofjive the great Irish ao-itator, O'Connell, his 

2 4 



18 



strange power of moving the multitude. His last 
speech, even when read, and without the magnetism of 
his personal presence, may well stand as the last of his 
utterances. 

The simplicity of Mr. Clhandler's style of oi'atory 
amounted to ruggedness, in the sense in which ^ve 
apply that word to the naked naturalness of a land- 
scape, whose features have not been too much modified 
by art. There is in (oratory an excessive polish, which 
suggests coldness and deadness. Some speakers 
sharpen the blade until there is no blade left ; the 
mistaken carefulness of their culture brings every- 
thing to one dead level of f aultlessness ; there is 
nothing to offend, and nothing to rouse and move. 
Demosthenes said that kinesis — not 'action,' l)ut mo- 
tion, or rather that which moves, is the first, second, 
third requisite of true oratory. He is no true speaker 
who simply pleases you : he must stir you to new 
thoiight, new choice, new action. 

We nuist beware of the polish that is a loss of 
power, and, like a lapidary, not grind off points, but 
grind into points. Demosthenes was more rugged 
than Cicero ; but he pricked men more with the point 
of his oratorical goad. Men heard the silver-tongued 
Roman and said, " ho\v pleasantly he speaks ! " The\- 
heard the bold Athenian and shouted, " Let us go and 
fight Philip ! " 



19 



Cai'lyle says, "he is God's auoiuted king whose 
siuiple word can melt a million wills into his ! " That 
melting wills into his own is the test of eloqiience in 
the orator; and a ragged simplicity has held men in 
the very tire of the orator's ardor and fervor, till they 
were at white heat, and could be shaped at Avill ; while 
the most scholarly display of culture often leaves them 
unmoved, to gape and stare ^^•ith wonder, as before 
the splendors of the Aurora Borealis, and feel as little 
real wai'uith. Emerson is right : ' there is no ti'ue elo- 
(|uence unless there is a man behind the speech,' and 
men care not what the speech is, if the man be not 
behind it, or on the other hand what the speech is, if 
the man be l)ehind it ! And so it is that Richard 
CV)bden compelled even Robert Peel, who loved truth 
and candor, to become a convert to his fi-ee-trade 
opinions ; and so it was that John Bright, another 
model of a simple utterance with a sincere man behind 
it, swayed such a mighty sceptre over the people of 
Britain. Tlie mere declaimer or demagogue may win 
a temporary hearing ; but the man who leaves a last- 
ing impress on the mind of the people must have in 
himself some real worth. 

To Mr. Chandler's executive ability, reference has 
been made. It was never better illustrated than in 
his vigorous and faithful administration as Secretary 
of the Interior. It AA"as Hercules in the Augean Sta- 



20 



bles, again — piirging tlie department, of incompetency 
and dishonesty. He sent a flood throngli the pension 
Ijnreau, tliat swept all the clerks out of one room ; and 
another through the Indian bureau, that cleaned out 
its abuses and exposed its fi-auds. It is said that the 
reconstruction of that department saved millions annu- 
ally to the treasury of the nation. Mr. Schurz, in 
becoming his successor, paid a very handsome tribute 
to the retiring Secretary, acknowledging the great 
debt of the country to Mr. Chandler's energy and 
fidelity, and modestly declaring that he could hope 
foi' no higher success than to keep and leave the 
de2:)artment where he found it. 

If there be any one thing for which the Senator 
from Michiijan stood above most men it was in this 
practical business ability. He had, in rare union, 
' talent ' and ' tact.' His good sense, clear views, 
ready and retentive memory, prompt decision, patience 
and perseverance, quick discernment and instinctive 
perception of the fitness of ways to ends, qualified him 
for energetic and successful administration anywhei-e. 
AVebster said, "there is always room at the top." 
Even the pyramid waits for the capstone, which must 
be, itself, a little pyi-amid. And he, who has inborn 
or inbred fitness for the top place, will find his way 
there : no other will long stay there, even if some acci- 



21 



dent lifts him to the nominal occupancy of such a posi- 
tion. 

He had rare tact, that indefinable quality of which 
Ross says, that " it is tlie most exquisite thing in man." 
Literally it means 'touch,' and is suggested by the 
delicacy often found in that mysterious sense. It 
describes, though it cannot define, the nice, skilful, 
innate discernment and discrimination which tells one 
what to say and do, even on critical occasions ; how 
to reach and ' touch ' men, when a blunder would he 
fatal. This wisdom of instinct may be cultivated but 
cannot be acquired ; and it seems to be close of kin 
with that common sense which, though by no means 
exceedingly 'common,' represents a sound intuitive 
sense in common matters, such as would be the common 
sense or verdict of wise and sagacious minds. 

The Senator impressed men as one whose powers 
were varied and versatile. Thomas F. Marshall, the 
'Kentucky orator,' maintained that fine speaking, 
writing and conversation depend on a different order 
of gifts. " A speech cannot be reported, nor an essay 
spoken. Fox wrote speeches; nobody reads them. 
Sir James Mackintosh spoke essays; nobody listened. 
Yet England crowded to hear Fox, and reads Mackin- 
tosh. Lord Bolingbroke excelled in all, the ablest 
orator, finest writer, most elegant drawing-room gentle- 



man in England." 



22 



Whether or uot this philosophy be souud and this 
estimate correct, we shall all agree that few men com- 
bine power of speech with force in composition and 
grace in conversation. Our departed Senatoi' certainly 
had more than the common share of versatility. That 
last speech at Chicago thrilled a vast audience when 
spoken, and kindled a flaming enthusiasm: yet it 
reads like the compact and complete sentences of the 
essayist. 

Versatility, however, is not to be coveted where it 
implies a lack of concentration. An anonymous 
writer has left us a very disciiminating comparison of 
two great British statesmen. He likens Canning's 
mind to a convex speculum which scattered its rays of 
light upon all objects; while he likens Brougham's to 
a concave speculum which concentrated the rays upon 
one central, burning, focal point. There are some men 
who possess, to a considerable degree, both the power 
to scatter and the power to gathei' the rays. At times 
they exhibit varied and versatile ability, they touch 
delicately and skilfully many different themes or 
departments of thought and action : but when ci'ises 
arise which demand the whole man, they become in 
the best sense men of one idea, for one thought fills 
and fires the soul ; every power is concentrated in one 
burning purpose. 



23 



The Senator, whose deserved garland we are weav- 
ing, was one of these men. There were times when he 
seemed to turn his hand with equal ease to a score of 
employments ; now giving wise counsel in gravest mat- 
ters, now playfully entertaining guests at his table ; now 
studying the deep philosophy of political economy, 
now holding a senate in rapt attention ; now reorgan- 
izing a department of state, now pushing a new meas- 
ure through Congress ; now closeted with the President 
over the issues of a colossal campaign, and again con- 
ducting a pleasure excursion; to-day leading on the 
hosts of a great party, and to-morrow managing the 
affairs of an extensive farm. But, when the destiny 
of the nation hung in the balance, or History waited 
with uplifted pen, to record, on her eternal scroll, the 
final decision of some great question, he gathered and 
condensed into absolute unity all the powers of mind 
and heart and will, and ilung the combined weight of 
his whole manhood into the trembling scale. When 
he felt that a thing must be, a mountain was no obsta- 
cle to surmount, a host of foes no occasion for dismay. 
With intensity of conviction, with contagious courage 
and enthusiasm, with indomitable resohition, with 
tireless energy of action, he went ahead, and weaker 
men had to follow; his conviction persuaded the hesi- 
tating, his coiu-age emboldened the timid, his determi- 
nation ins2:)ired the irresolute. He was the imit that, 



24 



in the leading place, makes even the cyphers swell the 
sum of power. 

It is no slight praise of Mr. Chandler to say that 
he was a man of industry : the results he reached were 
won by work. There is a great deal of blind talk 
about genius. That there is such a thing, apart from 
the practical faculty of application, even great men 
have doubted or boldly denied ; but certain it is that 
there is such a thing as the genius of industry, and 
that;-ules the world ! Alexander Hamilton disclaimed 
any other genius than the profound stiidy of a subject. 
He kept before liim a theme which he meant to mas- 
ter, till he explored it in all its bearings and his mind 
was filled with it. Then, to quote his words, "the 
effort which I malce the })eople are pleased to call 
the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and 
thought." 

And so for us all there is no royal road to a true 
success. We must simply plod on, along the plain, hard, 
plebeian path of honest toil, and climb up the hills, if 
we would get on and up at all. Spinoza gi-andly says 
that there is no foe or barrier to progress, like " self- 
conceit and the laziness which self-conceit begets." 
We venture to add that no conceit is surer to beget 
laziness than the conceit of 'conscious genius.' Our 
peril is to learn to do our work easily: that means 
poor woik, if indeed any work at all, shallow acquire- 



25 



ments, superficial attainments, and no real scholarly or 
heroic achievements. 

Our regretted Senator did not despise honest work, 
and never claimed to he a genius. He had a hearty 
contempt for all that aristocracy of intellect that 
frowns on mental toil. 

He spoke without manuscript, and without mem- 
orizing ; or, as we say, ' extempore.' That is another 
much abused word. Extemporaneous speech is not 
the utterance of words that shake the world, or any 
considerable part of it, unless such speech be the fruit 
not of that time, but, as Dr. Shedd says, " of all time, 
previous." But when the orator first becomes master 
of his theme, and then of the occasion ; and is thus fitted 
to deal with the real vital issues before the people ; 
he may, without having put pen to paper, or having 
framed a single sentence beforehand, often find him- 
self master also of his audience. The careful study of 
his sul)ject, the habit of thinking in words, and of 
weighing words when he reads and talks, scoops out 
a channel in the mind ; and when he rises to speak he 
finds his thought flowing naturally and easily in this 
channel. 

No man can carefully read ]\lr. Chandler's public 
utterances without detecting a brevity and terseness, 
a simplicity and plainness, an accuracy and vigor, and 
often a rhetorical beauty, which shew care in prepara- 



26 



tlon. These qualities are not tlie offspring of indo- 
lence. Years of drill lie back of the exact and daring 
touches with which the artist makes the canvas speak 
and the marble breathe ; and the extempore speech of 
the eloquent orator tells of long, hard discipline that 
has taught him how to think and how to talk : it may 
have taken him fifty years, to learn how to liold and 
sway an audience at will for fifty minutes. The ease 
and grace of true oratory are the signs of pi'evious 
exertion ; of that systematic exercise of the intellect 
that has suggested for our training schools, the name, 
gymnasia. The laws of brain and of brawn do not 
differ much in this respect. Men are not born athe- 
letes, either in mind or muscle : and to all who have 
a ti'ue desire to succeed, in any sphei'e of life, the one 
voice that, with the growing emphasis of the success- 
ive centuries, speaks to us, is, "whatsoever thy hand 
findeth to do, do it with thy might." Your sword 
may be shoi-t ; " add a step to it ! " it may be dull ; add 
force to the blow or the thrust. There is no encour- 
agement from History, more universally to be appro- 
priated by us, than the testimony she furnishes to the 
power and value of honest endeavor. To will and to 
work is to win. The highest endowments assure no 
achievements : all success is the crown of patient toil ! 
While thus speaking a word in favor of hard work, 
one word of caution and of qualification may not be 



■f" 



27 



out <>f place. I think God means that the sudden 
decease of public men when in life's prime, shall not 
be without warning. No thoughtful man fails to feel 
the force of this fact that somehow the average dura- 
tion of human life, especially on these shores and 
among men of mai'k, is shortening ; and that apoplexy, 
paralysis, angina pectoris, cerebral hemorrhage, and 
softening of the brain are amazingly common among 
brain-workers. The fatality among journalists is 
especially startling. 

We are a fastdiving and a fast-dying people. Our 
habits are bad. We work hard half the time and 
worry, the other half. We eat and sleep irregularly ; 
Ave tax our powers unduly, keeping the bow bent 
until the string snaps simply from constant tension, 
lack of relaxation. We turn night into day, without 
restoring the balance by turning day into night. We 
live in an atmosphere of excitement, and push on to 
the verge of death before we know our peril or realize 
our risk. We are tempted to put stimulus in the place 
of strength, that we may do, under unnatural pressure, 
what we cannot do by nature's healthy powers. 
Instead of repairing the engine, we crowd fuel into 
the boiler and get up more steam ; and, l)y and by, 
something breaks, or bursts, and the machinery is a 
wreck. 

I believe it is not hard work that kills us, so much 

J i 



28 



as work under wrong conditions. To do, with the aid 
of even mild stimulants, like tea and coffee, not to say 
tobacco, opium, quinine, etc., what we cannot do by 
the natural strength, is the worst kind of ovei^work : 
and yet our public men are subject to such strain, that 
they are almost driven to such resorts. Where they 
ought to stop, and sleep and rest, they ' key up ' with 
a kind of artificial strengtli, and get the habit of 
unnatural wakefulness; and then wonder why they 
are victims of insomnia. 

Prof. Tyndall, one of the most tireless men of 
brain, in our day, says to the students of University 
College, London : " Take care of your health ! Imagine 
Hercules, as oarsman in a rotten boat ; what can he do 
thei'e but, by the very force of his stroke, expedite the 
ruin of his craft ! Take care of the timliers of your 
boat!" And Dr. Beard adds: "To work hard with- 
out ovei'working, to work without wori'ying, to do 
just enouo'h without doino- too much — these are tlie 
great problems of our future. Our earlier Franklin 
taught us to combine industry with economy; our 
'later Franklin' taught us to combine industry with 
temperance ; our future Franklin — if one should arise 
— miist teach us how to combine industry with the 
art of taking it easy." 

The qualities that fitted Mr. Chandler for the con- 
duct of affairs were, however, not purely intellectual : 



29 



tliey belonged in part to anotlier and a higlier order, 
viz : the emotions and affections. 

He had great intensity of nature. Even his politi- 
cal opponents could not doubt the positiveness of his 
conviction and the profoundness of his sincerity : and 
here, as Carlyle justly says, must be found the base 
blocks in the structure of all heroic charactei'. It is no 
small thing to Ije able to command even from antago- 
nist the concession and confession of one's sincerity. Can- 
dor atones for a host of faults. Men will, at the last, 
forgive anything else in a man who tries to l)e true to 
his own convictions and to their interests. The utter- 
ances of impulse and even of passion, stinging sarcasm 
and biting ridicule, unjust charges and assaults, all are 
easy to pardon in one whose sincerity and intensity of 
conviction betray him into too great heat : men would 
rather be scorched or singed a little in the burning 
flame of a passionate earnestness than freeze in the 
atmosphere of a human iceberg — beneath whose i-het- 
orical brilliance, they feel the chill of a cold, calculat- 
ing insincerity and hypocrisy that upsets their faith 
in human honesty. 

He was also peculiarly independent and intrepid. 
The determination to be loyal, both to his convictions 
and to his coiintry, inspired him to a bold, lirave utter- 
ance and invested him with a courage and i-onfidence 
that were almost contagious. We cannot Init admire 



30 



the political fidelity expressed by Burke in his famous 
(lefeuce liefore the Electors of Bristol, when he said : 
"I (>l)eyed the instructions of nature and reason and 
conscience : I maintained your interests, as against 
your convictions." Few men have ever dared to say 
and do what Mr. Chandler has, in the face of such 
political risks and even such personal peril. One 
brief address delivered by him in the Senate, soon 
after he resumed his seat, Avill stand among the classics 
of our language, and, if I may so say, among the 
' heroics ' of our history. 

He was also a man of great political integrity. In 
the long career of a public life spanning more than a 
qiiarter of a century no suspicion of dishonesty or dis- 
loyalty has ever stained his character or reputation. 
Michigan may safely challenge any senatorial recoi'd 
of twenty years to surpass his, either in the quantity or 
([uality of public service. 

Those who knew him best affirm that he was, 
])(^litically and personally an incorruptible man. The 
position of a legislator is one of proverbial j)eril. From 
the days of Pericles and Augustus till now, the men 
who make laws and guide national affairs are pecul- 
iarly in danger of defiling their consciences by 'fear 
( >r favor.' Briliery sits in the vestibule of eveiy law- 
making assembly. Greed holds out golden opportu- 
nity for getting enormoiis profits from unlawful or 



31 



questionable schemes and investments. Ambition 
lifts lier shining crown, and offers a throne of com- 
manding influence if you will bow down and worship, 
or even make some slight concession in favor of the 
devil. Only a little elasticity of conscience, a little 
blunting of the moral sense ; a little falsehood or per- 
jury or treachery, under polite names; a lending of 
one's name to doubtful schemes ; and there is a rich 
reward in gains to the purse and gratifications to the 
pride, which more than pay for the trifling loss of self- 
respect. And so not a few who go to Congress with 
iinsullied reputation, come back smutched with their 
pai-ticipation in 'Credit Mobilier' and 'Pacific Rail- 
road' schemes, or any one of a thoiisand forms of 
fraud. 

So far as I know, Mr. Chandler has never been 
charged with complicity as to dishonest and disgraceful 
measures such as have sometimes made the veiy 
atmosphere of the capitol a stench in the nostrils of 
the pure and good. His name does not stand on the 
pay-roll of Satan, but with the honored few whose 
eyes have never been blinded by a bribe, and whose 
record has never been blotted with political dishonor. 

To have simply done one's duty is no mean vic- 
tory. To stand — like the anvil beneath the blows of 
the hammer — and firmly resist the force of a repeated 
temptation, is grand and heroic. To be venal is no 



32 



venial fault; no price, wliicli can be weighed in gold, 
can pay a man for the sale of one ounce of his manli- 
ness. Conscience is a Samson, whose locks are easily 
shorn, hut they never grow again ; whose eyes, once 
put out or seared with a hot iron, no prayei' will 
restore. And men, as great and wise as Bacon, have 
like him been compelled to confess to their own mean- 
ness and the mercenary character of their virtue. 

One of the worst signs of the times is this corrupt- 
il)ility of popular leaders. One of the greatest of 
European journals moves like a weather-vane just as 
the day's wind blows. Much of the best talent of 
Europe is for sale for or against despotism. Some of 
the most a;ifted men in the House of Lords are of 
plebeian birth, bought by the bribe of a title, as Harry 
Brougham himself was, when his great influence 
became a terror to the aristocracy ; and the Duke of 
Newcastle is said to have bought one-third of the 
House of Commons. There is scarce a measure how- 
ever infamous that may not be pushed through our 
Common Councils, and legislative bodies, if the lobby- 
ists are only ' influential and numerous,' and the money 
is only plenty enough. Let us give God thanks for 
every man in the community who is not on the auc- 
tion block to be knocked down to the highest bidder. 
In these days of abounding fraud and falsehood, men 
are beginning to feel the value of simple honesty. 



33 



We have, in ouv admiration of the genius of intellect, 
forgotten the genius of goodness which has power to 
ins^iire men with heroism. Better to strengthen a few 
timid hearts in loyalty to pi'inciple than to have 
deserved the encomiima of Augustus who 'found 
Rome, bi'ick, and left it, marble.' The Earl of Chat- 
ham refused to keep a million poimds of government 
funds in the bank and pocket the proceeds; as 
Edmund Burke on becoming paymaster general, first 
of all introduced a bill for the reorganization of that 
depai-tment of public service, refusing to enrich him- 
self, through the emoluments of that lucrative office, at 
public expense. 

No wonder George the Second should have said of 
such 'honesty' that it is an 'honor to human nature !' 
Such words were worthy of a king, 1 >ut it is only a 
crowned head l>owiug to royal natures that need no 
crown to tell that they are kingly. The distinguished 
Hungarian exile will never be forgiven for saying that 
he would praise anything and anybody to aid Hun- 
gary. Thei'e is an instinct in the great heart of 
humanity which not even wickedness kills, that no 
(|uality is so fundamental to character as absolute 
loyalty to truth : it is the base block of the whole 
structure; and great has been many a 'fall,' where 
there is no better foundation than the treacherous 



34 



and sliifting quicksauds of wliat is called 'policy,' 
aud which is to mauy the only standard of honesty. 

Mr. Chandler was known in politics as an enthusi- 
astic and radical advocate of his party and its meas- 
ures. It was not in him to do anji^hing Ijy halves ; 
and it is difficult to see why one may not as naturally 
be zealous in politics as in religion : in fact none ai-e 
more likely to chai'ge upon him partizanship than 
those who in their attachment to the opposite party 
shew their own lack of moderation. 

It has been well said that religion demands "a 
faith, a polity and a party." The faith and the polity 
belong to it as necessary features ; the i^arty is that on 
which it depends for organization and onward move- 
ment. There is a philosophy, a political creed and 
economy, which are, to the state, what religion is to 
the church; and no man can be a patriot without a 
political faith and polity and party ; though he may 
stand alone, he represents all thi'ee. He may l)e in 
the largest sense a patriot, and adopt the sublime 
motto of Demosthenes : " Not f athei', nor mother, but 
dear native land ! " yet his patriotism may compel 
him, as he looks at the matter of his country's interest, 
to take a position on the side of a political party, and 
to hold it in the face of ridicule and reproach and 
even of a pelting hail of hate. Others may not be 
wrong in their espousal of a dift'ei'ent }>olitical creed, 



35 



]3ut lie is not wrong, but right, in liis honest adherence 
to his. It is so in religion : an honest, intelligent man 
is loyal to his own denomination, yet is he none the 
less, because of that, a christian, in the breadth of his 
charity. 

In fact religion is not the only sjihere where self- 
sacrifice, for duty and for conscience, may be pressed 
even to martyrdom. St. Ignatius, facing the wild 
beasts in the arena, calmly said, "I am grain of God; 
I must be ground between teeth of lions to make 
bread for God's people." That was the grand con- 
fession of a christian martyr. Tell me, how much 
lower down in the scale of the heroic does he belous; 
who, for the sake of the best good of a constituency 
1 »linded by passion or prejudice, like the great English 
statesman, consents to be hurled from his shrine as the 
idol of the people, and calmly says, "I am under no 
obligation to be popular, but I am under bonds to my- 
self to be true !" When Regulus refused to buy his 
own libeity and life, at the cost of Rome's disgrace, 
and persuaded the Senate to reject the very ovei'tures 
which he was commissioned to convey, himself return- 
ing as his pledge required him if the negotiations were 
unsuccessful, and surrendering himself to the will of 
his enemies that Carthage might put him to death by 
slow toi'tui'e, it seems to me something like the martyr- 
spirit burned in that bosom. And, if there be nothing 



36 



akiu to moral mai'tyrdom, in bravely standing in one's 
jilace autl boldly holding one's ground, advocating 
what one believes to be the only true creed in politics, 
and the only true policy for the country, in face of 
sneer and threat, daring the blade and the bullet, the 
open affront and the secret assault, foi' the sake of 
being true to oneself and to one's native land ; if there 
be nothing sublime and heroic in all this, the verdict 
of reason is unsound. 



This lamented statesman had also a genial temper 
vs^hich won for him a host of friends. Public men are 
prone to one of two extremes : either the hypocritical 
suavity of the demagogue, or the arbitrary bluntness 
and curtness of the despot. Some swing away from 
the fawning airs of the puppy, but it is toward the 
repulsive manners of the bear. The man who, as you 
tip your hat, with a i)()lite good morning, sweeps by, 
saying ' I haven't time,' is too often the typical man of 
affairs, who thinks the quick dismission of applicants 
and intruders is the price of all energetic public serv- 
ice. It is said of the great French statesman, Richelieu, 
that he could say " no," so gracefully and wiuningly, 
that a man once became applicant for a position upon 
which he had not the least claim, just to hear the great 
Cardinal refuse. If common testimony may be trusted, 
Michigan's esteemed Senator seldom lost the hearty 



37 



cordiality and courtesy of hi.s manners, even under 
tlie fretting friction of public cares. 

I am tempted to add that, tlioiigh a representative 
republican, Mr. Chandler was, in the best sense, a 
democrat. He weighed a man according to the woi'th 
of his manhood. He could recognize true manliness, 
beneath a black skin as well as a white one, and lie- 
hind the rough dress of a poor man, as behind l)r()ad- 
cloth ; and, because he was the friend of humanity and 
of human rights, you will find some of his warmest 
friends among the common people and in the lower 
i-anks. 

I think both justice and generosity demand that 
among the tributes we weave for him, there should be 
distinct and emphatic mention of this simplicity of 
character. He was a man among men. From the first, 
he had none of those assumptions of conscious superi- 
ority, that mark the aristocrat. If anything, he was 
rather careless than careful of his dignity, and would 
sooner shock than mock the fastidious airs and tastes 
of those who pi-ate about culture, or pride themselves 
on their 'nobility.' Fox quaintly said, of the elder 
Pitt, that he ' fell up stairs' when he was elevated to 
the peerage. Many a man cannot stand going up 
higher. He becomes haughty, proud ; he affects dig- 
nity, he lords it over God's heritage, he becomes too 



38 



big with conscious superiority. Like Jesluirnu, lie 
waxes fat and kicks. He falls up-stairs, if not (lo^\ii. 

The warm, soft, genial side of Mr. Chandler's na- 
ture was unveiled in social life and most of all in the 
domestic circle. The play of his smile, the roar of 
his laughter, the delicacy and tenderness of his sym- 
pathy, his stalwart defense of those whom he loved ; 
the cliildlike traits that drew him to children and 
drew oliildi'en to him, none appreciate as do those who 
knew him best as friend, husband and father. The 
man of public affairs, he could lay one hand iirmly on 
the helm of state, while with the other he fondly 
pressed his grandchildren to his bosom, or playfully 
roused them to childish glee. 

This aspect of his many-sided character makes his 
death au irreparable loss to his own household. Even 
the great grief of a nation cannot represent by its 
'extensity,' the intensity of the more private sorrow 
that secludes itself from the public eye. He was, to 
those whom he specially loved, liotli a tower for 
strength, and a lover and friend for comfort and sym- 
pathy. Those who were 'at home' with him, and 
especially those who were the peculiar treasures of 
his heart, knew him as no others could. Happy is the 
ministei' who forgets not his parish at home — the 
church that is In his own house — and happy is the 
public man, whose pi'ivate life is not simply the reve- 



39 



latiou <»f the hard, coarse and unattractive side of his 
character. 

Tliat is I am sure no mdiuary occuri'ence, whicli 
lias made forever memorable the Calends of this No- 
vemlier. Death, however fi'e(|uent and familiar by fre- 
quency, can never, to the thoughtful, be an event of 
common magnitude: the exchange of worlds cannot 
be other than a most august experience. But this 
death has about it colossal proportions; it stands out 
and apart like a mountain in a landscape. It is recog- 
nized as a calamity not onl}- to a household, but to the 
city, the state, the nation ; and it may be doubted 
whether, since the assassination of Abivaham Lincoln, 
any single announcement has so startled the puljlic 
mind and moved the popular heai't as when on the 
first day of Novembe)' it was announced that Zachai'iah 
Chandler was found sleeping his last sleep. 

Ulysses 8. Gi'ant is a man of few words — and like 
his shot and shell they weigh a good deal and are well 
aimed. Let us hear his verdict on Mi'. Chandlei'. 

" A nation, as well as the State of Michigan, 
mourns the loss of one of her most bi'ave, patriotic 
and truest citizens. Senator Chandler was beloved 
by his associates and respected by those who disagreed 
with his political views. The more closely I became 



40 



acquainted with liim, the more I appreciated his great 
merits." U. S. Grant. 

Gulena, 111., Nov. 9, 1879. 

It is evident that it is no ordinary man, who has 
departed from amont;; us. It is not " a self-evident 
truth that all men are crsated equal," if we mean 
equality of gifts and graces, capacity, opportunity or 
even responsibility; and the people of these United 
States do not need to be told that Mr. Chandler was 
no common man. It was by no accident that he held 
in succession, and filled with success, posts of such im- 
portance and trusts of such magnitude. He did liot 
drift into prominence : he rose by sheer force of char- 
acter and Ijy tlie fitness of things. Born to be a 
leader, endowed with those (pialities that mark a man 
destined to leadership, having rare business faculty, 
and sagacity, tact and talent ; large capacity for organ- 
ization and administration ; his hand was naturally 
at the helm. 

Mr. Chandler's leadership reached beyond and be- 
neath the visible conduct of affairs. As Moses was 
the inspiration, of which Aaron was the ex^Jression, he 
was often the power behind the throne. He who has 
now left us, forever, belonged to the illustrious few, 
who were the special counsellors of Mr. Lincoln and 
the instigators of many <>f his wisest and best meas- 
ures. There is an innei' histoiy of the war which has 



■41 



never been wiitten and never will be. The lips that 
alone could disclose tliose seci'ets are fast closing in 
etei'nal silence, and the scroll will find no man worthy 
to loose its seals. 

Mr. Chandler could not have been wholly ignorant 
of the risk he ran in his laborious and prolonged cam- 
paign-work : but when his country seemed in peril his 
tongue could not keep silence. Just l^efoi-e starting 
on his last journey westward, he said to me : " In my 
judgment the crisis now upon us is more important 
than any since Lee surrendered, and as grave as any 
since Sumpter was fired on." Those who knew him 
best will not be sui'prised that, with siach an impres- 
sion of the magnitude of the issues now before the 
American people, he could not spare himself, biat gave 
himself without reserve to his countiy, sacrificing his 
life itself on the altar of his own patriotism. 

And so our stalwart statesman has fallen, and we 
have a new lesson on human mortality. Anaxagoi'as, 
Avhen told that the Athenians had condemned him to 
die, calmly added, "And nature, them!" All our 
riches, honors, dignities cannot stay the steps of the 
great destroyer. The manliest and mightiest leaders, 
and the hural:)lest and meanest followers bow alike to 
the awful mandate of death. And as Massilon said at 
the funei'al ()f the Grand Monarch, "(lod onlv is 
great !" 



42 



Of lioAV little consequence after all are all tlie 
things that perish. Temiwi'al things derive all their 
true value from their connection -with the invisible 
and eternal. How small will all appear as they recede 
into the dim distance at the dying hour and the world 
to come confronts us with its awful decisions of des- 
tiny ! What grandeur and glory are imparted to our 
humblest sphere of service, hei-e, Avhen touched and 
transformed by the power of an endless life ! 

AVe have reason to be glad that the popular recog- 
nition of Mr. Chandler's abilities and services has been 
so prompt and hearty as to afford him not a little 
satisfaction. Posthumous tributes are sometimes mel- 
ancholy memorials, reminding us of the monumental 
sepulchres of martyr-prophets. 

Robert Burns' mother said about his monument, as 
she bitterly remembered how the poet of Ayr had 
been left to starve, "Ah, Robbie, ye asked them for 
bread and they hae ge'en ye a staue !" It can never 
be said that our departed Senator had to wait for 
another generation to [)r(>ii(>unce a just or generous 
verdict upon his career : the trophies of victory and 
of popular esteem were strewn along the whole line 
of his march : and his last tour of the Northwest was 
a perpetual ovation. 

There is to my mind no little inspiration of com- 
fort in the fact that not even human malice can falsify 



43 



history. INIen sometimes get more than their share of 
praise (M- of Ijhxme while they live; but soonei' or later 
the cloud of incense or the mist of i^rejudice clears 
away and the real character is more j)laiuly seen. AVe 
can aft'ord to leave the final verdict to another gener- 
ation if need be, grateful as it is to be appreciated by 
the generation which we seek to serve. 

But it is still more inspiring to know that (rod 
rules this world, and reigns over the affairs of men. 
If He marks the flight and the fall of the sparrow, we 
may he sure that no man rises to the seat of power or 
sinks to the grave without His permission. 

God is not dead, and cannot die. Generations jmss 
away ^^-hile He remains the same. His hand is on the 
helm, whatever human hand seems to have hold, and 
is still there when the most trusted helmsman relaxes 
his dying grasp. If God's hand is not in our history, 
all its records are misleading, and all its course a mys- 
tery. Admit the divine factor, and, from the strange 
unveilino- of this hidden Westei-n world until this day, 
our national life appears like one colossal crystal; it 
has unity, transparency and symmetry. We can under- 
stand Plymouth Rock, the Revolution, the French and 
Indian AVars, the War of 1812, the Great Rebellion; 
the Kansas problem and the California problem, the 
Indian (juestion, and the Chinese question, Romanism 
and Communism, Eastei'u conservatism and AVestern 



44 



radicalism, the freedmeu and the emigrant, State 
I'ights and national sovereignty — all are the subordin- 
ate factors whose harmonizing, reconciling, assimilating 
factor is the divine purpose and plan in our History. 
My friends, the Republic has a divine destiny to fulfil. 
The Great Pilot is steering the ship of state for her 
true haven. 8cylla threatens on one side, Charbydis 
on the other ; but He knows the channel. The stonny 
Euroclydou may strike her, tear her sails to tatters and 
snap her ropes like burnt tow, and splinter her masts 
to fragments ; but He holds the winds in his fists. 
Let us not fear. We have only to love, trust and obey 
the God of our Fathers and He will guide us safely 
and surely through all darkness and danger. The sins 
that reproach our people are the only foes we have to 
fear : the righteousness that exalts a nation the only 
ally we need to covet. If the people of Michigan 
would real- a grand monument to the heroic men who 
have adorned our history, let lis be true to the princi- 
ples which they have defended, and to the God who 
gave them to us as His insti'uments. 

The Doric Pillar of Michigan has fallen ; but 
the State stands, and God can set another pillar in its 
place. There is stone in the quarry — columns are 
taking shape to-day in our homes and schools and 
churches ; and in God's time they shall be raised to 
their place. Let us only be sure that in the shrine of 



45 



our nation God finds a throne, and not the idols of 
this world, and not even the eaithquake shock shall 
shatter the symmetric structure of the Rejiublic. 



